Karla Marie Parker (Partee)

Suicide

Newlywed Karla Marie Parker Partee died from a gunshot wound to her head during a fight with her husband, St. Louis Community College officer Nigel Partee, in the master bedroom of her condo. Nigel Partee admitted to Florissant police that the couple had quarreled and that the argument had escalated into a shoving match. He said Karla, who he'd married six weeks earlier, shot herself and that he got gunshot residue on his hand when he tried to stop the bleeding. Florissant police applied for a warrant against Nigel on a charge of manslaughter, but it was rejected by the prosecutor's office. During a civil trial, Harold Mansfield, a retired St. Louis police officer and firearms expert, said the only way Nigel could have gotten GSR on his hand was from handling the weapon.